A couple of weeks I wrote THIS blogpost entitled The Truth About Mo Ansar. Over the last 24 hours three others have followed suit, with their own takes on Ansar’s fakery, fraudulent claims and bullying behaviour. After my own experience with him, when he reported me to the Police, I have been determined to expose him and hold him to account for what he has done. I wanted to bring to the media’s attention what kind of person he really is and to make editors and producers question why they invite him to appear on their programmes. I would challenge anyone to read these articles and still want him to appear on their airwaves. But in the end, we must all make our decisions and stand by them.
Nick Cohen in The Spectator writes a column in this week’s Spectator headlined The curious case of Mo Ansar: How did a former bank employee from Hampshire become the voice of British Islam?
If a curious stranger asked you to name a British Muslim commentator, I guess you would name Mo Ansar. So omnipresent has he become, he seems at times to be Britain’s only Muslim commentator… If producers dropped Mo Ansar, he would have nothing to fall back on. He would become what those who have felt the thrill of fame fear most: just another face in the street. Some minor celebrities respond to insecurity by being brittle and melancholic off camera. Others go on the attack. No one has experienced Ansar ‘s fury like the men who have threatened his career as an ‘opinion former’. His vindictiveness and self-regard will be his undoing. Broadcasters are a tolerant bunch. But they take exception to guests who try to set the cops on them. BBC Radio 5 will not have him on. Meanwhile everyone in commercial radio knows Iain Dale’s story. Maybe the Russian and Iranian propaganda channels will return his calls. Apart from that, it’s over.
Milo Yiannopolous writes Mo Ansar: The Bogus Muslim Theologian Who Defends Slavery & Says Muslims Discovered America in 1100AD While Claiming Benefits & Appearing on the BBC
I have been looking into Ansar for the past three weeks, and my investigation has revealed that Ansar has fabricated an extraordinary number of jobs, lied about professional qualifications and invented work experience, causing distress and harm to many, misleading the public. British Muslims find it laughable that Ansar claims to represent them. I could not find a single journalist, community organiser, imam, activist or foundation head who said they supported Ansar’s views or that he spoke for any sizeable number of Muslims or any local or national community. Most expressed confusion that Ansar was given such a prominent platform by the BBC, particularly in light of his widely-loathed behaviour on social networks.
Saif Rahman, founder of the Humanist & Cultural Muslim Association, has been keeping an eye on Ansar for some time. “Mo knows there are journalists who aren’t so rigorous,” says Rahman, who also accused Ansar of publishing under multiple identities on social media. “I think people in the UK are waking up now. They can see through him and they know exactly what’s going on… the number of Twitter accounts he posts under and the YouTube account that is obviously him. “British taxpayers are subsidising someone who works full-time against them.” Rahman continued: “Mohammed Ansar doesn’t represent the progressive Muslim community like the media portrays. His comments about segregation, race, homosexuals, slavery and so on misrepresent groups of enlightened Muslims and the way they are perceived in our society. “He is a Frankenstein’s monster that the media created.”
And finally Jeremy Duns writes about The Dangerous Mr Ansar
Have you heard of Mohammed ‘Mo’ Ansar? If you’re British, you almost certainly have, as in the past four years he has become a regular fixture on radio and television shows in the UK. His niche is as a ‘social and political commentator’ discussing Islam and Muslim life in Britain, and as such he has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4, Sky News, Al Jazeera, Russia Today, PressTV (the latter two are propaganda networks of authoritarian regimes) and many other channels. He is most often featured speaking out against the demonisation of Islam and Muslims and calling for more calm and tolerance. Well, that’s for the good, surely? A measured, moderate voice in the public sphere is to be applauded. Except Mo Ansar is far from moderate. He has some very immoderate views indeed, and is a devious charlatan to boot. With no serious base of expertise to draw on, he has created a media profile for himself built on sycophancy, evasion and deception. He has smeared perceived rivals, promoted extremist views and inflamed tensions. He may seem like a buffoon at times, but his ruthless pursuit of more airtime has been toxic… The rise of this narcissistic, faux-pious conman as the media’s go-to Muslim pundit is a bizarre one. It has been almost entirely fuelled by his online presence. Many have written about Mo Ansar online, and there will be more to come in print shortly. But for all the comic absurdity of his claims to be a lawyer, an LGBT activist, an ‘educationalist’, a lecturer and seemingly dozens of other professions, the details of which he never wants to substantiate, don’t make the mistake of thinking him harmless. He is a dangerous fraud, and has knowingly spoken in a way to incite death threats against others, for petty revenge.
In future, any producer who books Ansar to appear on a radio or TV show needs to justify to their editor and audience why they have done so. He is an embarrassment to most muslims, represents no one but himself and has been shown to be a complete fake. There are some brilliant muslim representatives out there if you look. What he tried to do to me, he has done to many others. We’ve now seen the real face of Mo Ansar and he needs to be recognised for what he is – a charlatan, a fraud and a rather ignorant gob on a stick.
I intend this to be my final word on Mo Ansar.
